Celiac Resources for San Diego ​& Those More Newly Diagnosed

Of Special Interest if Your Child Has Been Diagnosed with Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity:

If your children have been newly diagnosed with celiac disease, you might find these resources helpful:​1. From Boston Children's Hospital's Celiac Program (a Harvard Medical School Hospital) : a. Videos for Parents and Children (designed for those more newly diagnosed). Videos offered from Boston Children's include mini-episodes on "Raising Your Celiac Child" and "Gluten-Free at College"b. "Amy Goes Gluten-Free" magazine for children from Boston Children's Hospital - We received several copies of this we can give you at a support meeting, or you could likely request one from Boston Children's Hospital.c. Get access to approximately 80 New Videos for Older Children and Teens (by older children, teens, and dietitians). The program was produced through Boston Children's Hospital. For those who are not patients there, there is a $35/year membership fee. To find out more, contact: celiac.kids.realtalk@childrens.harvard.edu​2. Watch this short video produced and recorded by our celiac support group with nationally renowned celiac dietitian and author Melinda Dennis, MS, RDN, who give kids tips on a celiac-safe gluten-free diet: The Celiac Support Association Presents Celiac Dietitian Melinda Dennis’ Kids Chat​- This video Includes healthy gluten-free snacks, quizzes for kids on a gluten-free diet, tips to get a celiac-safe gluten-free pizza at a restaurant, ideas for what to say to other kids who ask why you can't eat gluten​3. See Beyond Celiac's Getting Started Guide for those with Celiac Disease and Non-celiac gluten sensitivity - includes 504 plan guidance and lunch/snack ideas. BeyondCeliac.com also put together a very useful Q&A with a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Center for Celiac Disease at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to answer questions about children and teens with celiac disease. Also, see their new video on how celiac disease works if you're interested.

4. We have some San Diego specific resources for you also:

If you're a parent of a child with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity and are having a hard time getting your child's 504 plan established, our support group can give you references to contacts who have helped other members in the past. If you'd like those references or would like to take a more active role for children in the area please contact Michele Vargas.

Contact Michele Vargas and we can setup a get together within a couple of weeks near your part of town with other families whose children have celiac disease or gluten-related disorders. We also have other parents you can connect with that are in town. Children, teens, and parents are always welcome at our support meetings, and sometimes we have special events and activities just for the kids.

The best way to learn to follow a strict gluten-free diet is with help from a celiac-specializing dietitian.​Our support group of 21 years is happy to connect you with celiac-specializing dietitians we have had experience with.

CeliacNow.org, created with support from a grant to Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Hospital's Celiac Center was co-authored by one of the country's top celiac specializing dietitians with celiac disease herself. It's a rich, additional completely freeresource to learn basic through advanced skills for following a strict gluten-free diet.

Gluten-Free Dining Tips

​Some Tips for Gluten-Free Dining in San Diego:You will need to decide for yourself whether these or any restaurant is right for you, but these tips may be useful:

- Check to make sure any restaurant is using purity protocol oats, not just oats that are labeled GF or certified gluten-free.

Check to make sure the restaurant's flours are at least labeled gluten-free, since cross-contamination can be a problem with many naturally occurring gluten-free grain flours, including rice flour.

Contact the National Celiac Organization to learn other important steps to take to avoid cross contamination including cooking food on clean stainless steel pans, using a separate gluten-free work area, using separate dedicated gluten-free cutting boards, gluten-free collanders, gluten-free cooking utensils, using a separate dedicated gluten-free toaster, ideally serving gluten-free food on plates that are shaped differently from those used to serve food which contains gluten, not cooking food directly on a grill that is used for food containing gluten, not cooking gluten-free food in water used to boil pasta, and more. Restaurant owners can also enquire about their new national registry of gluten-free restaurants.

You may choose to be especially careful at pizza establishments serving "gluten-free" pizza - some are not as safe as others (see adjacent slide, courtesy of Melinda Dennis, MS, RDN). The answer is ALL of these steps are needed to keep gluten-free pizza safe.

Tip with dedicated gluten-free restaurants: You may feel comfortable with the convenience of using DoorDash, Uber Eats, or E24 with these dedicated gf restaurants. These are apps which can be downloaded on your phone or accessed from the web. The service will make deliveries from several of the restaurants above for a small fee. As of March 2017, dedicated gluten-free restaurants 2Good2B and Healthy Creations offer Door Dash deliveries for example. They let you schedule your delivery time or choose for the food to be delivered asap and you can track where your driver is at.​

Dedicated Gluten-Free Restaurants in San Diego

Some San Diego Area Restaurants Designated as Dedicated Gluten-Free:

2Good2Bin Encinitas, CA and now Rancho Bernardo, is a dedicated gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free bakery and restaurant. They are also well known for their exquisite custom cakes and offer catering options as well.​

Healthy Creations in Encinitas, CA. They offer delicious, organic, popular gluten-free take-and-make meals, and a terrific bakery and in-house menu.

Starry Lane Bakery in Hillcrest, CA is a dedicated facility, free of all of the top 10 food allergens, including; gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, and peanuts. See their website for holiday food items and recipes.

No endorsement is necessarily implied for these restaurants, but we thought you might want to be aware these dedicated gluten-free restaurants are in San Diego.

Travel Tips for Those with Celiac Disease or Those on a Strict Gluten-Free Diet:

Includes annual celiac blood test and vitamin testing recommendations, tips to find an excellent celiac specializing dietitian, how often to see a celiac specializing dietitian, tips to maximize nutrition on a gluten-free diet including often misunderstood facts about vitamin supplement absorption, and more​

Includes healthy gluten-free snacks, quizzes for kids on a gluten-free diet, tips to get a celiac-safe gluten-free pizza at a restaurant, ideas for what to say to other kids who ask why you can't eat gluten

Additional Resources

In a study conducted by Tricia Thompson, Anne Lee, and Thomas Grace, 32% of the naturally gluten-free grains and flours tested contained gluten in amounts greater than 20 parts per million.

Excerpt from GlutenFreeWatchdog.org: "Unfortunately, the Food and Drug Administration under the gluten-free labeling rule is NOT requiring manufacturers to test their labeled gluten-free foods for gluten contamination.

Contamination of naturally gluten-free grains and flours with wheat, barley, and rye is a concern to many people who must eat gluten-free. In a study conducted by Tricia Thompson, Anne Lee, and Thomas Grace, 32% of the naturally gluten-free grains and flours tested contained gluten in amounts greater than 20 parts per million. Gluten contamination can occur in the fields where food is grown, in the trucks and railcars where food is transported, and in the processing and manufacturing plants where food is made ready for the consumer. It is our hope that independently testing labeled gluten-free products and making results available to subscribers will allow you to feel more confident in the products you buy. "​

GlutenFreeWatchdog.org is a not for profit service which independently tests hundreds of packaged products with top-notch ELISA tests in triplicate to see how much gluten they really contain. ​Click here to learn more about this service and how much it costs to subscribe.

Curious about what kinds of products they test? Click here for the list of categories and number of products she's tested.

Celiac ListservSign up for the national Celiac Listserv (this is not related to our support group) if you'd like to receive emails from others around the country about celiac disease. The emails include primarily general Q&A's about celiac, upcoming non-profit celiac related events, recruiting for trials, and once a month info. about celiac cookbooks and special educational or travel programs for those managing the disease. The sign-up process begins with sending an e-mail to CELIAC-subscribe-request@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG. ​